A candle loses nothing from lighting another candle

BR: Warleggan by Winston Graham

My enjoyability of this series does increase for every book, although there were some issues I found with this one that I haven’t really found before.

Writing quality: 4/5

Pacing: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Enjoyability: 4.5/5

Ease of reading: 5/5

Thought-provoking: 4/5

Merit and originality: 3.5/5

Overall love: 12.5/15

83%

DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK – SPOILER ALERT!

The first problem I found was with Francis’ death. I have noticed it before (especially with Julia’s death!) that Graham really skims over the deaths, which is a very obvious point when main characters die! There isn’t a huge amount about what the characters are feeling, and the deaths don’t really seem to have the widespread effects you would expect.

I also had huge problems with Ross’ character. Although he has always been a slightly questionable character, I rarely doubted the goodwill and honesty of his intentions. However, this really changed in this book. When he had his encounter with Elizabeth, I think he must have known the pain it would cause (especially to Demelza) and yet he did it anyway, out of selfish reasons. I would say though, he did redeem himself at the end when he tried to make a big effort with Demelza to fix things, though that was only after Elizabeth was married and off the table…

The last issue was with the fluctuations in the book. It’s noticeable in the past 3 books as well that whenever something good happens – they strike a huge lump of ore in the mine – something bad almost immediately follows – the mine collapses, killing some of the miners. This isn’t a particular fault with Graham, because that’s just how society was, and he wanted to cram as many events as he could in, but it was just something that I personally didn’t like.

I liked how this book hinted a little more into the gender roles in the society at the time. The men were stressing about the debts and everything, and all the women could do was to helplessly watch.

There were a lot of relationship issues in this book. Three major relationships were tested: Dwight and Caroline were forced apart, though they found each other in happiness at the end. Francis and Elizabeth were torn apart (obviously) by his death, but Elizabeth quite quickly married George – which although might sound strange in this day and age, in that society it was quite a common thing – and Demelza and Ross had a wedge driven between them due to Ross’ actions and Demelza’s constant fear of not being worthy enough for Ross.

I thought it was interesting how we saw a bit of the world outside of Cornwall in this book. Previously we have almost been trapped into this microcosm of society, with only a few glances outside into the world, but I liked how Graham expanded the scope a little, with the onset of the war and Ross’ travels to London.

All in all, a very fast, enjoyable book, and I am, like always, excited to continue with the series!

Thank you for reading, let me know what the last book you read was down below!